Maldonado Ninth Despite “Small Mistake” For Williams Man

Williams had reasons to be positive following qualifying in India today. It was a strong joint performance from the drivers, with Pastor Maldonado due to start ninth on the grid, with Bruno Senna not far behind him in thirteenth.

Pastor Maldonado made it to Q3 for Williams (Photo Credit: Steven Tee/LAT Photographic)

Williams had reasons to be positive following qualifying in India today. It was a strong joint performance from the drivers, with Pastor Maldonado due to start ninth on the grid, with Bruno Senna not far behind him in thirteenth.

But, as the Spanish Grand Prix winner Maldonado said afterwards, he felt there was more pace in the car.

“I made a small mistake on the final corner of my final lap which lost me quite a lot of time so I don’t think ninth is reflective of our true pace today. We were not as quick as we needed to be yesterday but we worked really hard to understand why and the car felt much better today.”

“We’re back challenging in Q3 so there are lots of positives we can take from today’s qualifying, and our race pace seems to be competitive so I’m optimistic about my chances tomorrow,” he added.

Bruno Senna has yet to make it into Q3 this season, but was positive after his qualifying session.

“I made a mistake on my lap which is disappointing because I would have been in the top 10 if that hadn’t happened. We showed good pace in this morning’s practice and in Q1 as well as a clear improvement over the last couple of races so things are going in the right direction,” the Brazilian said.

“We’ve been strong on our longer runs so hopefully I can make up some places tomorrow and get into the points.”

“We showed good long run pace on Friday and with further car improvements through the weekend we expect to have two strong races with both drivers fighting for points,”Mark Gillan concluded.